The Jazz took a terrible tumble against the Lakers. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

1. An 18-4 Lakers run in the 4th quarter lost the game for the Jazz.

From 9:34 to 3:39 left in the 4th, the Lakers went on an 18-4 run that won them the game. 18 points is a high, but not ridiculous, amount of points to give up in 6 minutes, especially because many of them were easy points in transition off of Jazz turnovers. 4, on the other hand, is far too low of a total to score, so let’s break down the offensive possessions:

9:34: Trey gets the ball stolen from him by Jeremy Lin in the backcourt in a simple pick and roll situation. Bad ballhandling by Trey here. Lin gets the ball and scores the breakaway layup.

9:22: Trey tries to take advantage by getting ahead of Lin in transition, leaves it for a Rudy alley-oop, but Hill reads an iffy pass well and gets the turnover. Burke then fouls to stop the fast break.

8:15: Jazz get the ball down low to Favors, who passes to an open Rudy for a seemingly easy dunk. But Rudy doesn’t expect the pass, fumbles it, and another turnover. After Lakers score in transition, Jazz call timeout, up now only 5 after starting this sequence up 11.

7:42: After a mostly listless possession, Hayward gets the ball on the wing with 6 seconds left in the shot clock, pump fakes, and drives to the hole, scoring a very difficult scoop shot. Despite the make, Hayward bails the Jazz out of a bad offensive trip.

6:10: Jazz pass to Booker in the post. Hill fouls him. Booker makes 0 of 2 FTs. The Jazz were very lucky here that Hill fouled both of these players in short shot-clock situations, but the Jazz only converted 1 of 4 FTs. The Jazz had a real chance to keep their lead here, but passed it up.

5:35: Booker gets the ball in transition and goes for the punctuating dunk, but misses it. Lakers get layup on the other end. So unlucky. My colleague Ben Dowsett says he should have just gone for the layup here, but… I think the dunk is actually a higher percentage opportunity. And more fun, to boot.

4:42: Hayward drives and gets blocked, probably shouldn’t have attempted that shot. Lakers come down and tie the game with a dunk.

4:09: Burke waves off the screen so he can go isolation. He drives and predictably gets blocked as well. Lakers take the lead with a fast break layup.

3:39: Hayward goes for a pullup stepback jumper that he’s been pretty good at this season, this one hits back iron. Gobert tries for the tip, misses, once, then twice. Then Favors does the same and gets fouled. He goes to the line and makes… 1 of 2. Meanwhile, Hill banks in a 19 footer on the other end. Jazz down 3.

That’s the stretch that killed the Jazz. In those 7 minutes, they had 3 turnovers, went 1-9 from the field, and 2-6 from the line. They got blocked twice. They missed dunks, jump shots, and didn’t execute offensively. It was terrible, and the lack of focus and execution lost them the game.

Believe me, the players know and feel all of this even more than the fans do: they uniformly looked angry at themselves in the locker room after the game. Denver might be in for some trouble on Friday.

2. Talking about free throws.

The Jazz shot just 22-34 from the FT line tonight, good for 64.7%. NBA teams shoot 75.3% on average, so had they made an average amount of FTs, they would have 25.6 of them. So yeah, if they make an NBA average number of FTs, they get 3-4 more points, and probably win the game. Unlucky, and disappointing, to be sure.

But. The Jazz also made 7/12 (58.3%) of their 3s. League average on this statistic is 34.9%. So on a league average night from 3, the Jazz make 4.2 of their 3s. That difference is worth 8.4 points per game. Because the Jazz made an above-average number of threes, they had a chance to stay in the game at the end, and their skill from the 3 point line outweighs their lack of skill from the FT line.

Admittedly, this is a skewed way to look at it, as the Lakers’ defense is present on one of the two types of shots. But as you disparage the Jazz’s free throw shooting, keep in mind that they more than made up for it with their performance from 3. The turnovers are the ultimate reason the Jazz lost the game, in my mind.

3. Jazz treat fans well with no increase in season ticket prices.

Too often in the NBA, greedy owners raise ticket prices even on bad teams, preventing their buildings from filling up on an individual night because the price increase brings tickets out of fans’ budgets. This week, though, is the first week for Jazz fans to renew their season tickets, and the Jazz organization has kept them at the same price. Here’s the breakdown:

Jazz 2015-16 season ticket prices. (Sorry for the poor photo, but the prices aren’t online yet, so this is the best I can do.)

Jazz’s 2014-15 season ticket pricing.

Bravo also to the Jazz for introducing/returning a new ticket slot: the $5 dollar seats. Located at the top of the upper bowl, this nevertheless gives fans a good way to get in to watch a Jazz game for about $200 a season, a tremendous value for the NBA. I got my start as a Jazz fan purchasing $5/game season tickets with the money I earned from a summer job, so hopefully we can get some more talent for Salt City Hoops coming through the pipeline as the result of the Jazz selling these tickets.

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

On this week’s episode of the Salt City Hoops Show on ESPN700, we talk about an exciting time in Jazzland: the Jazz, having freshly traded Enes Kanter and Steve Novak away, have put together two incredibly impressive wins against strong Western Conference competition. We talk about the trade itself, what the Jazz got back, then talk about why the Jazz have played so well in the last week. We break down the defensive impact of everybody in the rotation, and what they’re doing well to bring this success. Seth Partnow joins us on the show to talk about Rudy Gobert’s success defensively analytically, and Jon Hamm joins us from OKC to tell us about the performance of Enes Kanter in his new home. We also grade all 11 trades that happened at the trade deadline, recapping and evaluating the huge player movement in the NBA this week, and break the Derrick Rose news on air. Also, there are some interesting word choices by yours truly. It’s the Salt City Hoops Show!

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

]]>http://saltcityhoops.com/talking-jazz-greatness-post-enes-kanter-trade-salt-city-hoops-show-on-espn700/feed/0On this week's episode of the Salt City Hoops Show on ESPN700, we talk about an exciting time in Jazzland: the Jazz, having freshly traded Enes Kanter and Steve Novak away, have put together two incredibly impressive wins against strong Western Confere...On this week's episode of the Salt City Hoops Show on ESPN700, we talk about an exciting time in Jazzland: the Jazz, having freshly traded Enes Kanter and Steve Novak away, have put together two incredibly impressive wins against strong Western Conference competition. We talk about the trade itself, what the Jazz got back, then talk about why the Jazz have played so well in the last week. We break down the defensive impact of everybody in the rotation, and what they're doing well to bring this success. Seth Partnow joins us on the show to talk about Rudy Gobert's success defensively analytically, and Jon Hamm joins us from OKC to tell us about the performance of Enes Kanter in his new home. We also grade all 11 trades that happened at the trade deadline, recapping and evaluating the huge player movement in the NBA this week, and break the Derrick Rose news on air. Also, there are some interesting word choices by yours truly. It's the Salt City Hoops Show!Salt City Hoopsno1:32:16The Triple Team: Three Thoughts on Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs 2/23/2015http://saltcityhoops.com/the-triple-team-three-thoughts-on-utah-jazz-vs-san-antonio-spurs-2232015/
http://saltcityhoops.com/the-triple-team-three-thoughts-on-utah-jazz-vs-san-antonio-spurs-2232015/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 06:27:30 +0000http://saltcityhoops.com/?p=14904Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

In a harbinger of what’s to come, Rudy Gobert towers over Tim Duncan. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

1. Second consecutive remarkable defensive performance by Utah

After holding Portland to just 76 points on Friday (a season low), the Jazz turned around and held the world champion San Antonio Spurs to 81 points (a season low). This team is undergoing a remarkable defensive turnaround. Currently ranked 26th on the season, the Jazz have figured out, as if by magic, how to put the puzzle pieces together to become a sensational defensive team against Western Conference playoff contenders.

Tim Duncan led the Spurs with only 14 points, on 7-14 shooting. Overall, the Spurs’ starters scored just 33 points; the average NBA starting lineup scores 66. Let’s look at the Spurs’ murderers row of talent, what they average, and how the Jazz limited them tonight:

A red-light/green-light of how the Jazz defended the Spurs’ best players. Note all of the red.

The Jazz held all but 2 of the 13(!) Spurs players that played tonight to under their season averages in points. Again, this is the 26th-ranked defense against the defending champion Spurs, who have all of their players healthy.

So how are they doing it? We asked Gregg Popovich, who said “Quin and the staff have done a great job of getting the system across and instilling the aggressiveness and physicality that’s needed to win in the NBA. They played unselfishly. They believe in each other. I thought they were tremendous, it was fun to watch.”

This isn’t just Rudy Gobert, by the way, although that definitely does help. Rudy’s averaged 27 minutes per game in the last 2 games; he was averaging 21.5 minutes per game before the trade. The 5ish minutes aren’t that much of a difference. But the Jazz’s team defense has stepped up from top to bottom.

Let’s leave it to Quin Snyder to have the last word:

“Rudy’s been very good, and he’s made an impact. It’s more than Rudy. I take nothing away from Rudy’s presence and it’s impact: it’s significant. But Dante Exum was terrific in pick and roll defense. Terrific. Elijah. Gordon had a stunt tonight… it was a big play, a timely play, because it took away a three point shot. I think Trey is working hard. Everybody’s trying to do their part. When you get that, it’s no one player. When someone is protecting you, it gives you even more energy and a sense of duty to do your job. And that’s all it is, everybody’s just doing their job.”

2. Two-game thoughts after the trade.

There’s been significant hand-wringing about the Enes Kanter trade, and understandably so: Kanter has impressed in his two games as an Thunderer, including a great plus-minus while on the floor, his statistical Achilles heel when on the Jazz.

But let’s take a step back and look at the larger picture: it really seems like everyone involved in this trade should be thrilled about it.

Enes Kanter is playing great, and seems happy: he’s diving on the floor and into the stands for loose balls, he’s throwing 75 foot outlet passes, he’s defending with energy, all things he was occasionally reticent to do in Utah.

Oklahoma City is thrilled to have the extra production while they have their best player and former starting center out.

The Jazz just pulled off 2 tremendous wins against Western Conference opponents, just their 5th and 6th such wins of the season. They’re playing fantastically, especially on defense, holding teams to their season low point totals. They also have more flexibility next season.

Grant Jerrett went from the D-League to the NBA. Yay!

Tibor Pleiss may be bought out of his contract and moved to the Jazz soon, though it’s clear that won’t happen immediately. Still: upgrade over being a backup at FC Barcelona!

Time will tell how this trade works out for the Jazz, trades aren’t judged less than a week later. But there’s no reason to be upset that Oklahoma City got better too: sure, the Jazz play them 4 times, but the upgrade over the 82 total games the Jazz play seems like it might be substantial.

Furthermore, OKC’s improvement actually helps the Jazz: the pick that must be given to Philadelphia in order to start the 2-year clock on their own pick is top 18 protected this season. So if the Thunder finish in the top 12 of the league, the Jazz have more at-bats to make their pick a first rounder, as the Thunder would have to miss the playoffs for 4 consecutive years in order for it to switch over to two 2nd round picks.

In sum, as a Jazz fan, it’s okay to root for Enes Kanter and the Thunder.

3. Schedule gets easier

The Jazz have played the NBA’s toughest schedule thus far, which has helped mask their improvement despite not having a significantly better record than last season. Now, the Jazz play the league’s easiest remaining schedule, especially over the next few weeks. The next 8 Jazz games are:

Home vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Away at Denver

Home vs. Milwaukee

Away at Memphis

Away at Boston

Away at Philadelphia

Away at Brooklyn

Home vs. New York

That’s a really winnable schedule: Utah will be favored in probably 6(?) of those games. All of a sudden, a mini run going into the end of the season sounds very plausible for this quickly improving Jazz squad. Focus will be tested. If any of Hayward, Favors, or Gobert get injured, they’ll be completely decimated, but things are looking good now and later for the Utah Jazz.

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

The Jazz doubling Aldridge in the 2nd half proved to be very effective. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

1. The new-look Jazz defense was dominant.

Okay, sure, maybe the Blazers were a little bit sleepy coming off of the newly extended All-Star break. But wow, that was a seriously impressive performance by the Jazz, who held Portland to well below their normal offensive output through impressive individual and team help defense. Consider the following facts:

The Jazz held the Blazers under 20 points for the last 3 quarters.

Portland averages 38 made shots per game. Tonight, they made 26.

No one in Portland’s starting lineup shot over 50%. Only 1 player overall did: Chris Kaman (3-5).

Portland’s bench was held to just 14 points.

Portland averages 10.1 made 3-point shots per game, but had only 4 tonight.

This was made possible by a really impressive defensive effort by everyone involved. Let’s start with Trey Burke, who has been fairly maligned for his defense all year long, including by Quin Snyder. Tonight, though, Snyder sang a different tune: “Everybody who came in the game took a lot of pride [in the defense]. I thought it was one of the best defensive games Trey has played all year. I was really happy to see him compete, pressure the ball, and his pick and roll defense was really good.” If Trey can pick up the defensive effort and ability, that’ll make a huge difference for the Jazz moving forward. Trey has complained (albeit not directly, but it’s been clear who he was talking about) about Enes Kanter’s help defense more than once this season, and maybe Kanter’s absence is making all of the difference.

Gordon Hayward also earned plaudits from his coach for his off-ball defense, which helped earn him 3 steals tonight. Those help the Jazz so much, as the offense can sputter without adding in some transition looks.

I thought Trevor Booker’s energy in this game was insane: he only ended up shooting 2-9, but was incredible with his defensive effort. It seemed like he wanted his hand on the ball on every defensive possession. He picked up 2 steals for his efforts, but got many more deflections and rebounds. He also had an incredible block on a LaMarcus Aldridge jump shot, which is a ridiculously hard thing to do: Aldridge has only had 5 jump shots blocked from beyond 16 feet this year before tonight, and only Booker, Rudy Gobert, Marc Gasol, and Anthony Davis have done it. Tonight, Booker got one with his incredible athleticism.

Rudy Gobert got the other. Gobert picked up 5 blocks tonight, despite playing just under 24 minutes. He forced Aldridge to pump fake on nearly every look, which seemed to hurt his percentages: Aldridge shot just 5-16 tonight, for just 14 points. He’s an incredible defensive player, and these final 28 games are going to be absolute must-watch with him on the floor.

2. The rebounding game was great too.

Generally, when one team shoots only 36% from the floor, that team will win the offensive rebounding battle, if only by the sheer number of missed shots available.

Not tonight. The Jazz won the offensive rebounding battle 13-3, which gave them important extra looks at the basket while preventing the Blazers from doing the same. That was a big deal, because the Jazz ended up getting up 11 more shots than the Blazers during the game. It’s difficult to lose while doing that.

The Jazz are the #1 offensive rebounding team in the league this season (by OREB%). I asked Quin after the game about how important that is to him, even though new-school coaches generally give up on offensive rebounding to prevent transition baskets:

“We want 3 guys back. It’s hard, there’s a balance between not giving up transition baskets and staying aggressive on the glass. When your big guys are running and defending, to go to the glass, it’s just hard, it takes a lot of effort. It’s something you can try to coach, but really, it’s the players. It’s guys making up their mind that they’re going to work, and it’s hard.” Credit, then, to Favors and Booker especially tonight, who got 9 offensive rebounds between them.

3. Let’s look at one great defensive possession.

We don’t do a ton of film study in these Triple Teams, but I thought this possession by the Jazz was an incredible display of 5-man rotation. This sort of passing would have killed the Jazz in previous years, but tonight, the Jazz dealt with it extremely well.

The play starts with Elijah Millsap gambling on a backside steal, helping off of Wesley Matthews. While this is a risky play, it comes with a huge payoff: if it works, the Jazz stop the Blazers from scoring and get two easy points on the other end. Nevertheless, it doesn’t work, and gives the Blazers a temporary 5-on-4 that they should be able to take advantage of.

However, Rodney Hood steps up and helps one pass away to Matthews, even though McCollum is open in the corner. After receiving the ball, Hood blocks off the easy pass to McCollum, and forces a pass to a seemingly open Aldridge, because Booker is helping so far to the strong side. But since it’s a long pass, both Booker and Millsap are able to quickly recover to Aldridge, double-teaming to force the pass like they did for most of the second half.

Aldridge, trapped in the corner, can’t pass to the closer Blake because, again, Burke rushes to prevent the look to the man one pass away, forcing a looping one to Matthews. Hood’s guarding Matthews now, so he looks to pass to McCollum, who seemingly doesn’t have a man guarding him. Gobert takes one step and uses his length to guard McCollum effectively, despite the mismatch. McCollum is forced to pass to Kaman in the mid post, with Booker now rotating over. In a bad offensive possession, Kaman looks to skip the ball to Blake, but Trey Burke is ready to easily steal the pass.

Throughout the play, the Jazz rotated to help one pass away, even if mismatches were created. As a result, the Blazers had to throw 3 looping skip passes during the possession, which allowed the Jazz time to guard the man receiving the ball. In the end, the Jazz took advantage of the final one to get a steal.

Incredible team defense by the Jazz, as an entire 5-man unit. Opposing coach Terry Stotts gave the Jazz’s defense some love: “You got to give Utah credit with their defense. They were very energetic, they were scrambling.” Against one of the league’s best offenses, it was just so encouraging as the Jazz enter their post-Kanter era.

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

After weeks of speculation, the deal really occurred today: the Utah Jazz officially traded Enes Kanter and Steve Novak to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for a protected future 1st round pick from OKC, a 2017 2nd round pick from the Detroit Pistons, Kendrick Perkins, the rights to FC Barcelona C Tibor Pleiss, and the rights to Tulsa 66ers F/C Grant Jerrett. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo was the first to report the trade.

How the trade occurred

Just 8 days ago, Enes Kanter made his trade wishes known publicly for the first time after the Jazz’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks. While Utah was very much internally looking at the possibility of trading Kanter before his comments, going public pushed Utah into acting aggressively to find a deal. The Jazz front office insisted that Enes’ demands did not change what they were willing to accept in a trade, but the feeling was that his comments made a long-lasting positive relationship less likely.

As the Jazz shopped Kanter, they looked to teams who had expressed previous interest in Kanter, who had a clear need for a big man, or had assets the Jazz really wanted to acquire. Oklahoma City was on the list largely due to the first factor alone. Oklahoma City had expressed interest earlier in the year, but while Kanter’s a good young big man, the Thunder already have a pretty solid rotation of Serge Ibaka, Stephen Adams, Kendrick Perkins, Nick Collison, Mitch McGary, and Perry Jones. All 6 of those bigs but Collison and Perkins are young.

Furthermore, the Thunder have a hodgepodge of assets that don’t really fit the Jazz’s situation, as we discovered in the trade itself. The Jazz aren’t fans of Jeremy Lamb’s game or potential, especially defensively. Reggie Jackson was a malcontent expiring without a jump shot. If the Jazz were going to acquire him, then they’d almost certainly want to match any offers he received in free agency, and they weren’t willing to commit long term to a core of Jackson/Exum/Hayward/Favors/Gobert, of whom only one can shoot.

Undeterred by this asset mismatch, the Jazz put together an offer to Oklahoma City early in the week which was discussed back and forth until the very final moments of the trade deadline, including as OKC continued to explore a deal with Brooklyn for Brook Lopez. As Quin Snyder explained, “There wasn’t any kind of watershed moment.” It was clear that this was a possibility all along.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t other offers. The Jazz had the opportunity to join the PG trade wheel as well today as part of a Kanter trade, but ultimately chose to keep Trey Burke and move Kanter in this deal. They like Trey’s attitude, and note that young PGs sometimes take several seasons to develop. They also liked adding more flexibility for this year’s offseason through the trade that occurred, rather than removing flexibility in the other offers presented. Ultimately, Oklahoma City’s desire to add Kanter forced the match.

Breaking down the deal

So what was involved in this trade? Let’s break it down, piece by piece, in order of importance.

Enes Kanter out.

Ultimately, this deal never would have occurred without Enes Kanter’s impending restricted free agency. Just like with the Deron Williams trade 4 years ago, the Jazz sought the relative security of known assets over the possibility that an important player would leave without a return. As Dennis Lindsey explained today, “We concede Enes is a very significant player, and he’s going to get a great contract, deservedly so, given his talent and his work ethic. But there’s 20 teams potentially with $10 million or more in room, so there’s some economics there, some supply and demand there.”

The Jazz felt that with the great number of teams with a large amount of cap space, Enes Kanter was going to get a deal for 10 million or dollars more per season. Essentially, Lindsey concluded, “We can’t pay everybody 10 million plus. We had to look at some hard, cold facts.”

The Jazz have already given long-term contracts to Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, and even Alec Burks at that amount or more, but felt that Enes Kanter couldn’t be trusted at that dollar amount, due to a confluence of his poor defensive numbers, his poor work sharing the ball, and the inconsistent attitude of both Kanter and his agent, Max Ergul. There’s a sense that Utah might be better with Kanter off the floor than on it, given his rather unimpressive plus-minus numbers during the course of his career.

And unlike with Hayward, Favors, and Burks, Utah felt comfortable turning to the rest of the roster for support. Dennis Lindsey felt both Gobert and Favors had surprised him with their growth, saying “Certainly, Rudy’s exponential growth, we didn’t expect that, I didn’t expect that, but you’ve got to react to it and acknowledge it a little bit.” and “I didn’t expect Derrick developing the power forward skills that he has today.” It was time to reward their work with the positions and roles they deserved.

Oklahoma City’s 1st round pick in.

The short version: Oklahoma City will give the first-non lottery pick that comes at least 2 years after the Thunder fulfill their obligations to trade a 1st round pick to Philadelphia. If that doesn’t happen by 2020, the Jazz will receive 2 2nd round picks.

The long version: In the Dion Waiters trade, Oklahoma City gave a first round pick to Cleveland that was protected for selections 1-18 in 2015, 1-15 in 2016, and 1-15 in 2017, then turns into 2 2nd round picks after that. The Cavaliers then flipped that to Denver in the Timofey Mozgov deal. The Nuggets then flipped that to Philadelphia in the JaVale McGee deal today.

Because of the horrendous ruin Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien caused when trading batches of first round picks in the 80s, there’s now a rule that says teams can’t trade more than consecutive 1st round picks. So the Jazz will have to wait 2 years after the Thunder give this pick to Philly in order to receive theirs. The Thunder currently have the 17th worst record in the NBA, so as of today, they would not give a pick to the Sixers, and therefore not have to give a pick to the Jazz until 2018 at the earliest. However, if the Thunder improve in the last 25 or so games and get to the 19th pick, then the Jazz would receive OKC’s 2017 1st round pick.

That is, unless the Thunder were in the lottery. Then, the Jazz would not acquire the pick until the next year that the Thunder made the playoffs. The Jazz feel confident enough in OKC’s management that, regardless of Kevin Durant’s future in OKC, the team will likely be in the playoffs between 2016-17 and by 2019-2020, before the 1st round pick would sadly fall into 2 2nds.

It’s not a brilliant set of conditions, but it’s a 1st round pick. The going rate for those is about $10 million in salary, even with onerous conditions.

Steve Novak out.

Steve Novak had had two good games in his last week in a Jazz uniform, which made this part of the deal tougher for Jazz fans. But the truth is that Novak has always been a negative asset during his time with the Jazz, as evidenced by the good 2nd round pick Toronto had to give up in order to dump his $3.5 million salary on Utah. Barely playing while Utah gave minutes to a rotating cast of D-League characters over him didn’t do his trade value any favors either.

Dumping Novak in this deal, then, saves the Jazz from having to spend a 2nd round pick in order to dump him in the offseason on another team as they chase after free agents. Agents don’t love negotiating with teams that only have money to spend conditional on a trade, so this might open up free agency negotiations a little bit more than had they not moved Novak today. Back of the envelope math shows that the Jazz could end up having up to $18 million to spend in this year’s free agency, with a Booker waive, maybe allowing them the upper hand in free agency negotiations. We’ll see.

Detroit’s 2017 2nd round pick in.

This one’s actually simple! The Jazz get Detroit’s 2017 2nd round pick. This gives the Jazz 4 second round picks in that draft and up to 3 first round picks. Maybe we’ll see 7 picks traded for the #1?

Again, Dennis Lindsey explained: “”You pooh-pooh 2nd round picks until you hit on one… Those are great chips to go to the poker table and make swaps with as well.”

Tibor Pleiss in.

Tibor Pleiss is a 7’2” German big man who currently plays for FC Barcelona, backing up fellow Jazz prospect Ante Tomic, ironically enough. Dennis Lindsey has watched infinitely more film on Pleiss than I have, so I’ll let him give the scouting report: “He’s a large man, and he’s getting bigger, more developed. He still has some more strength and power work to do, especially as it relates to our league. He’s big, he has very good touch, good FT shooter. He scored big with his club last year, where he was a starter, then he moved over to Barcelona where he’s Ante Tomic’s backup. He’s mobile for a guy that size.” In other words, he is large.

But when asked if he could be a defensive player, Lindsey answered, “I’d say he’s more of an offensive player. But certainly when you’re 7’2”, by definition you’re a defensive presence.” While Pleiss may be literally present on the floor, we’ve certainly learned with a number of NBA big men that size does not always equal defensive effectiveness.

Oklahoma City tried to bring Pleiss over to the NBA this season, but the buyout amount on his contract with his former team, Laboral Vitoria, was apparently prohibitive. That being said, FC Barcelona was able to conduct the buyout for a reported $650,000, just over the $600,000 allowed without paying the remaining amount on the cap. Still, when that “penalty” was combined with Pleiss’ contract demands as the Thunder’s approached the luxury tax line, they ultimately decided against it. The two planned to reopen negotiations for his NBA move this upcoming summer.

Now, though, that’s up in the air, and will probably be determined after the Jazz make initial moves this offseason. Favors and Gobert are sure to remain on the team, but will Booker? Will the Jazz draft a big man in this year’s studded class, or will they give money to a free agent big? All of these questions determine whether or not there’s space for Pleiss to join the roster.

Grant Jerrett in.

Grant Jerrett was the 40th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Thunder. Lindsey wrapped him up by saying, “He’s 21, he’s 6’10’, he’s mobile, he’s shooting 38% from 3 in the D-League, and we like shooting bigs and the spacing that provides.” In other words, this is another Malcolm Thomas/Erik Murphy play for the Jazz, and while those guys didn’t work out, they also never had a chance to play under Quin Snyder. Jerrett should make the Jazz’s NBA roster immediately, as without him, they only have 12 players on the roster. More info on Jerrett’s profile entering the draft is available on DraftExpress.

Kendrick Perkins will be waived. He’s in this deal to make the salaries work.

This summer

So, what do the Jazz do this summer, now with some additional flexibility after this deal? They could do nothing, make a pick, and forward cap space onto the summer of 2016, but given the rising salary cap, that seems like a bad idea: literally every team will have salary cap space that summer.

They could also chase one of the bigger free agents. The free agent market has a lot of role players who might fit nicely in Utah’s new system: Paul Millsap, Danny Green, Wesley Matthews, and Khris Middleton are all conceivable targets. Would a good player come to Utah? Dennis Lindsey thinks maybe: “If I’m a veteran, I can start to see the pieces, not only be significant, but starting fitting together.”

But perhaps the most intriguing possibility raised by Lindsey today was this one: “We can be a serious player during the draft to take in a veteran to speed up our timeline.” The Jazz could offer their own likely top 10 pick, and/or other future assets, to entirely absorb a big-money player for a team that wanted a fresh start. By doing this, the Jazz might acquire a better player than going through the traditional draft and free agency route.

All in all, though, it was a momentous deal. While none of the individual pieces is the tremendously valuable type that you’d hope in return for the former 3rd pick, having a multitude of assets gives the Jazz flexibility to make a big move, possibly this summer, to take the leap as a contending team. It may seem like the assets returned today only further push Utah’s contention timeline down the road, but in reality, it may give them freedom to make the moves needed to win as soon as next season. In the end, with Kanter’s return uncertain at best, the Jazz received significant assets with which to play.

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

Enes Kanter was once happy to walk the halls of EnergySolutions Arena as a Jazzman. Now, apparently, he is not.(Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)

This week’s episode of the Salt City Hoops Show is dedicated to the trade deadline: in particular, Enes Kanter and shopping him around the league. We start the first hour with a general update on the Enes Kanter situation, and what the Jazz are considering as they look around the league for Kanter moves. The best part of the show, though is in the second hour, when we talk with writers from 7 teams from around the league who have been linked to interest in Enes Kanter: BOS, PHX, OKC, TOR, MIL, GSW, and SAC. Those teams share what they’d be interested in giving for Enes, and then we compare those offers to find the best one for Utah. All that in this week’s episode of the Salt City Hoops Show!

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

]]>http://saltcityhoops.com/shopping-kanter-around-the-nba-salt-city-hoops-show-on-espn700/feed/5This week's episode of the Salt City Hoops Show is dedicated to the trade deadline: in particular, Enes Kanter and shopping him around the league. We start the first hour with a general update on the Enes Kanter situation,This week's episode of the Salt City Hoops Show is dedicated to the trade deadline: in particular, Enes Kanter and shopping him around the league. We start the first hour with a general update on the Enes Kanter situation, and what the Jazz are considering as they look around the league for Kanter moves. The best part of the show, though is in the second hour, when we talk with writers from 7 teams from around the league who have been linked to interest in Enes Kanter: BOS, PHX, OKC, TOR, MIL, GSW, and SAC. Those teams share what they'd be interested in giving for Enes, and then we compare those offers to find the best one for Utah. All that in this week's episode of the Salt City Hoops Show!Salt City Hoopsno1:31:53Analysis: Enes Kanter Hopes To Be Traded From Utah Jazzhttp://saltcityhoops.com/analysis-enes-kanter-hopes-to-be-traded-from-utah-jazz/
http://saltcityhoops.com/analysis-enes-kanter-hopes-to-be-traded-from-utah-jazz/#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 09:35:38 +0000http://saltcityhoops.com/?p=14764Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Enes Kanter has told reporters that he hopes to be traded before this year’s trade deadline. Jody Genessy of the Deseret News confirmed. Kanter played just over 18 minutes tonight in the Jazz’s 5 point loss against Dallas, but didn’t play beyond the 6:20 mark of the 3rd quarter.

Later, Jody Genessy reported more about Enes’ trade wishes:

Enes Kanter’s agent Max Ergul has been asking for a trade for years and has turned up the heat on Jazz management lately, per sources.

From my own eyes, I can report that Enes was definitely frustrated under Ty Corbin’s regime, especially because he didn’t start a majority of games, even as the Jazz had limited big man options. This year, Kanter has started all but one of his games, but has played essentially the same number of minutes, due to the emergence of Rudy Gobert and solid play of Trevor Booker. As a result, Kanter started the year very upbeat, but has been frustrated at times with the minutes he has received, or media criticism that he perceives as unfair. His agent, Max Ergul, has also been upset with the above: after all, a decrease in Enes’ valuation throughout the league is a decrease in his paycheck, too.

Meanwhile, until now, the Jazz front office had felt that his potential was worth more than the limited interest they had received in Kanter from other teams. Before the 2013-14 season, they wanted to see what he could bring in more than a 4th big role. In Ty Corbin’s final year, he played 27 minutes per game, but finished the season as the 3rd-worst defensive center in the league (out of 67), according to ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus stat. Then, with the Jazz having replaced Ty Corbin with Quin Snyder, the team wanted to see what the talented player development coach could do with Kanter’s skills. While Kanter’s effort (and offense), has improved, ESPN’s DRPM now ranks him as the very worst defensive center in the league (out of 75). In the defensive system that the Jazz are trying to build, Enes Kanter just doesn’t fit.

While the Jazz still feel, even now, that Kanter could develop into a plus player overall, this trade deadline was and is a natural time to explore trade possibilities, given his restricted free agency in the upcoming summer of 2015. Before tonight, the Jazz were very much open to the possibility of testing Kanter’s restricted free agency: if an offer sheet signed were to be relatively low, the Jazz would retain Kanter as a promising 3rd big behind Favors and Gobert. If an offer sheet were too high, the Jazz would simply let Kanter walk, and use the cap space gained to sign a replacement.

Now, though, that patience approach becomes difficult: Utah simply believes too much in the importance of a winning culture to keep Kanter on the team in the short term. Remember, the Jazz are a franchise that, 20 years ago, was the model for Gregg Popovich and company when building the Spurs. Now, with Spurs’ transplants Dennis Lindsey and Quin Snyder running the show, the Jazz insist on building a similar culture by having a core group that stays true to a set of shared principles. By making his wishes known to the Utah media, Kanter’s shown far too publicly that he’s not on board. He just can’t stay for Utah’s final 29 games.

So given that, in my opinion, he will be traded, what are the Jazz looking for? The first cutoff when evaluating potential targets is whether a player has “Jazz fiber”, a phrase Lindsey has used often to describe the type of personality that can fit into the Jazz’s system. No Lance Stephensons or J.R. Smiths here; the Jazz don’t want to replace one headache with another.

The second test is whether the trade would forgo the Jazz’s rebuild from taking place. With Hayward, Favors, Burks, Exum, and Hood all having deals that likely will extend through 2017-18, the Jazz would be reluctant to take on a big deal that extends beyond next season because doing so would significantly limit their flexibility to add pieces to take the team from good to great 2 to 3 years down the road. Likewise, they may also be opposed to take on a restricted free agent as the main component of the deal, given an impending long-term commitment.

The positional demands of the roster are complicated: Kanter’s departure would open up significant 3rd big man minutes. For the time being, Trevor Booker would suffice to fill the majority of those, but long-term, he’s probably not quite good enough for the Jazz’s aspirations. While this year’s draft is loaded with big men, recent draft history shows that those big men take a long time to develop, and probably wouldn’t be ready for a 2015-16 Jazz team making a playoff push. A move that looked towards next season as the Jazz’s time to take a leap would have to figure out some sort of plan for a big man, whether that be acquired in the trade itself or, at least, not disqualifying them from using their cap space on one this summer.

That being said, Utah’s current weakness is at the PG and SG positions. The Jazz hope and expect that one of Dante Exum or Trey Burke will develop into a starting-caliber point guard, and likewise hope that a SG rotation of a healthy Alec Burks and Rodney Hood will be at least league average. But there are no guarantees on this, and the Jazz could consider adding a young player here to increase their chances of getting one or two of them to pan out.

On the court, shooting, energy, and toughness are three areas in which the Jazz see themselves as needing improvement. Utah’s lack of shooting is the single largest weakness in the Jazz’s offense. The Jazz currently are 20th in the league or worse in every shot distance beyond the restricted area, a fact that significantly impedes Snyder’s system built on passing and spacing. The Jazz would be excited to see what a quality shooter could add to the overall effectiveness of the Hayward/Favors/Gobert core. Likewise, the Jazz feel that another defender with energy and toughness could bring synergistic benefits for a team that’s ranked 25th in the league thus far at forcing turnovers. Right now, the Jazz have a lot of players that can either shoot or defend with energy , but very few who can do both. Utah should be looking to acquire someone who either has both skills, or could potentially develop into someone who does.

Are the Jazz going to get everything they want? Probably not: it’s difficult to imagine a team wanting to trade its problem-free, tough, energetic, young, cheap shooter for anything at all, let alone Enes Kanter. But the Jazz are considering all of the above when making a trade, and they’re hoping to hit at least a couple of the check boxes.

For what it’s worth: Kanter does still have some value around the league. I’m told multiple teams have at least inquired about the big man before tonight’s events, and I suspect even more bargain-hunting teams will have called since. While such a public declaration on Kanter’s behalf hurts the Jazz’s leverage, in that keeping him in restricted free agency is no longer really a viable option, it does at least bring Kanter to the top of team’s radar screens for a short time.

As for specific trade ideas, we talked about 6 of them on this week’s Salt City Hoops Show. Since then, I’ve been sent many more on Twitter that we’ll be either writing about or talking about on a later date. If this RealGM thread is any guide, fans from teams around the league are interested and will trade items of value to receive Kanter’s services. We’ll see if real NBA front offices agree.

Still, it promises to be an intrigue-filled week for Jazz fans; we’re now just 7 days away from the NBA’s trade deadline. Much more on this topic coming up on Salt City Hoops in the week to come.

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

On this week’s Salt City Hoops Show, our main topics of conversation are: Gordon Hayward’s development into a star since Dante Exum moved into the starting lineup, and the upcoming trade deadline (now just 9 days away!). Ben and I analyze 7 different complete trade ideas that might interest the Jazz this trade deadline. Then, we have Kareem Copeland, the new AP Utah sports writer, on the show to talk about his path to Utah, Hayward’s growth, and the deadline. Besides that, we talk about 89 other nouns that might interest you, including: Gobert, Burke, Utah, hiking, the Hawks, Kings, playoffs, Popovich, Memphis, Dean Smith, Blake Griffin, Dwyane Wade, Tyson Chandler, 2 trades, Adreian Payne, Kevin Love, Swaggy P, Magic Johnson, passes, shots, dunks, international basketball relations, All-Star games, Jerry Sloan, Deron Williams, Ty Corbin, Dallas, and Rajon Rondo. If you like the first big topics, or any of the nouns, listen to the show!

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

]]>http://saltcityhoops.com/7-jazz-trade-ideas-is-hayward-a-star-and-more-salt-city-hoops-show-on-espn700/feed/2On this week's Salt City Hoops Show, our main topics of conversation are: Gordon Hayward's development into a star since Dante Exum moved into the starting lineup, and the upcoming trade deadline (now just 9 days away!).On this week's Salt City Hoops Show, our main topics of conversation are: Gordon Hayward's development into a star since Dante Exum moved into the starting lineup, and the upcoming trade deadline (now just 9 days away!). Ben and I analyze 7 different complete trade ideas that might interest the Jazz this trade deadline. Then, we have Kareem Copeland, the new AP Utah sports writer, on the show to talk about his path to Utah, Hayward's growth, and the deadline. Besides that, we talk about 89 other nouns that might interest you, including: Gobert, Burke, Utah, hiking, the Hawks, Kings, playoffs, Popovich, Memphis, Dean Smith, Blake Griffin, Dwyane Wade, Tyson Chandler, 2 trades, Adreian Payne, Kevin Love, Swaggy P, Magic Johnson, passes, shots, dunks, international basketball relations, All-Star games, Jerry Sloan, Deron Williams, Ty Corbin, Dallas, and Rajon Rondo. If you like the first big topics, or any of the nouns, listen to the show!Salt City Hoopsno1:33:25The Triple Team: Three Thoughts on Utah Jazz vs. Sacramento Kings 2/7/2015http://saltcityhoops.com/the-triple-team-three-thoughts-on-utah-jazz-vs-sacramento-kings-272015/
http://saltcityhoops.com/the-triple-team-three-thoughts-on-utah-jazz-vs-sacramento-kings-272015/#commentsSun, 08 Feb 2015 05:44:42 +0000http://saltcityhoops.com/?p=14717Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.

Hayward’s had a run of good games of the last 2 weeks, and tonight’s was no exception. He scored 30 points on 13-23 shooting (including 3-8 from 3), he only took and made one free throw. He also picked up 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals for his trouble.

The best part, though, was his defense: he limited Rudy Gay to only 4 points on 1-8 shooting. Gay averages 20.2 points per game, so limiting him to just 4 was a major part of the Jazz’s victory tonight. Hayward’s +23 when he was on the floor tonight is the result.

Quin Snyder’s been consistent this season: every time we ask him about one of his players who had a great offensive game, he assesses his defense first. Tonight, again, Quin went to the defensive well, and was incredibly positive about Hayward’s performance:

“The thing he did tonight was play defense off the ball. He got his hands in passing lanes. He had great activity. And I’m not going to be satisfied until he plays every facet of the game, because he has got such a good feel for the game and he’s so impactful when he is engaged. It’s really hard when you’re doing so many different things for your team to not take a breath, and he didn’t do that tonight. There was not a single point in the game where I did not feel like he was engaged. This was maybe one of his best games.”

Hayward’s defensive impact has been very up and down during his career, varying as he’s been asked to take on different roles. But tonight’s game gives an idea of what his defensive ceiling his, something that should encourage fans as Hayward continues to grow.

2. Ty Corbin’s return was without major incident.

Ty Corbin had all the reason in the world to speak defensively tonight: earlier today, a report came out that the Kings could make a coaching switch as soon as the All-Star break, cutting short his contract with the Kings. Furthermore, he was returning to a place that didn’t renew his contract, and he famously was pretty negative on the way out. He was facing a press corps who he once called the least favorite part of his job.

Instead, in his press conference before tonight’s game, Ty Corbin was incredibly upbeat and classy. He said it was “good to be back”, and said that there were “some long-lasting relationships that he missed being around.” About the Jazz, who changed directions away from him as head coach, he said that it was “a great organization to work for”. And finally, he seemed like a proud father about the growth of Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward, who he oversaw for the first 4 years of their careers. It was all really genuine. Credit to Corbin for returning with such grace.

3. The Jazz successfully avoided costly turnovers.

It’s now been 8 games that the Jazz have gone without committing more than 15 turnovers, which has been a big problem for the team. Coming into tonight’s game, the Jazz were 25th in the league in turnover %, but they’ve been able to keep the ball much more effectively recently.

That’s good, because turnovers have really hurt the Jazz. This season, they’ve been 29th in opposing points off of turnovers, giving up 19.3 points per 100 possessions. In the last 8 games, however, they’ve been 14th in the league, giving up just 16.2 points per 100 possessions. That 3 point difference is a big deal: not only are they able to keep the ball more often (and score more often as a result), they’re also giving their opponents fewer free points on the other side.

That improvement on both ends is why they’ve been able either to win the last few games, or keep their opponents close , despite having a difficult schedule: they’re not allowing their opponents to go on transition-fueled runs.

Author information

Andy Larsen

Andy Larsen is the Managing Editor of Salt City Hoops, the ESPN TrueHoop affiliate for the Utah Jazz. He also hosts a radio show and podcast every week on ESPN700 AM in Salt Lake City.